Seven of the computing industry's leaders, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel,
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have joined together to address this important issue
through an independent industry body called the InfiniBand Trade Association. The
association is dedicated to developing a new common I/O specification to deliver
a channel based, switched fabric technology that the entire industry can adopt.
InfiniBand™ Architecture represents a new approach to I/O technology and is based
on the collective research, knowledge, and experience of the industry's leaders.

The mission of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is to foster the development
and deployment of interoperable products and services for data switching and routing
using optical networking technologies. The OIF will encourage co-operation among
telecom industry participants including equipment manufacturers, telecom service
providers and end users; promote global development of optical internetworking products;
promote nationwide and worldwide compatibility and interoperability; encourage input
to appropriate national and international standards bodies; and identify, select,
and augment as appropriate and publish optical internetworking specifications drawn
from appropriate national and international standards.